この春に銀座線の車両をジャックしたファッションゲリラ集団、THE HAPPENING。数名のファッションメディア限定の”電車ランウェイショー”に呼びだされ、私がある駅のホームへ駆けつけた。突然に現れたモデルたちが電車に乗り込み、パパラチやストーカーみたいに彼女たちを追った私。電車を降りて、地下鉄の駅でポーズをとるモデルさん(表現者たち)の圧倒的な姿でメディアたちも、一般人も、どんな人でも不思議な騒ぎに巻き起され、エモーシナルなハプニングとなったのはいうまでもない。
「許可なくてもやるから!!と駅人に言ったからね」とショー後に東京発の電車ランウェイの経緯を話すファッションディレクターの伏見京子さん。「ギリギリで協力をもらった」。
そんな強い意志を持ちながら、東京の各地で”ハプニングショージャック”をしてきたTHE HAPPENINGが今回仕掛けるのは…
This spring, the fashion group known only as The Happening commandeered a few subway cars on the Ginza Line for a guerrilla runway show. I was called out to a show limited to only a few members of the media, and I found myself on the platform of an station underground. When a model appeared and stepped into the train, I followed her inside like a paparazzi or stalker.I trained my camera and shutter finger on her, snapping away as she posed and preened in the car, the usual propriety of Tokyo’s train passengers be damned. The models in their avantgarde garb then all gathered in a nondescript hallway somewhere deep inside Ginza Station, with a gaggle of photographers and muggles all gawking at the scene.
“I said to them, `Even if you won’t give us the OK, we’re gonna do it anyway`!” said Kyoko Fushimi after the show, a stylist and the brains behind The Happening. “In the end, they gave us their permission, and helped us out with logistics.”
And with this sort of determination to bend the rules, The Happening has been happening at random places all over Tokyo, showing off fashion-forward designs from the city’s best up and coming talent. So what do they have cooking this time? Well, it’s certainly a more inclusive way to enjoy their events…